Nottingham City Council surpasses CC target, four years early

Nottingham City Council has met its climate change (CC) target four years ahead of schedule, after applying a range of energy saving initiatives.

Recent government statistics have shown the city has achieved a 33 per cent reduction in carbon emissions since 2005, exceeding the 26 per cent target originally set for 2020 and making it the best performing local authority outside of London.

Councillor Alan Clark, Nottingham City Council’s portfolio holder for energy and sustainability, said: “It’s a great achievement to have met this important target four years early. Nottingham is at the forefront of sustainability awareness and these latest figures maintain the city’s position as the UK’s most energy self-sufficient city.

“There has been a real move towards sustainability in the city with a wide range of organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors carrying out vital work to reduce our environmental impact. 

Beating our target is a fantastic recognition of the efforts across the city to achieve this aim.”

Clark also said that figures suggest the local authority has the highest proportion of solar panels per household in the country. However, cuts to government support for solar has meant the council has had to put a pause on new installations.

Furthermore, the council has also made a significant progress in the decarbonisation of its transport infrastructure.

Commenting on the council’s desire to make further efforts to reduce its carbon emissions, Clark said: "We're going to be cracking on, it doesn't mark the end just the end of one phase. We've got an ongoing review partly because we've got new policy officers in as well so they want to review how we've been doing on the strategy and start something new.”